Amid signs that the Bush administration may be backing away from unequivocal support for independence for Kosovo, the head of the Albanian American Civic League is appealing to the American Jewish community to advocate on behalf of Kosovo, a region of the former Yugoslavia that is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Albanians.

“When Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic was massacring Albanians in Kosovo in 1998-99, the American Jewish community took the lead in pressing President [Bill] Clinton to bomb Serbia, because they instinctively understood the nature of genocide and were determined to keep it from being repeated,” said Joseph DioGuardi, a onetime Republican congressman from Westchester County who has become a passionate advocate for the rights of Kosovo Albanians since leaving Congress in 1990.

“Today, with the international community seemingly backing away from prompt implementation of independence [for Kosovo] out of a misguided inclination to appease Serbia,” DioGuardi continued, “we need the American Jewish community to get involved in this issue again because genuine independence is not only just and right, but is also the only way to secure stability in the Balkans.”

In his effort, DioGuardi is reminding Jewish Americans of the little-known fact that Albania was the only nation in Europe that refused to turn over even one Jew to the Nazis during World War II, saving about 2,000 during the German occupation of that Balkan country.

DioGuardi, who served in Congress from 1984-‘88, learned during that time that his father, who emigrated to the U.S. from a village in southern Italy, was not really of Italian ancestry, but was actually descended from Albanian Christians who moved to Italy in the 15th century to escape a takeover of that country by the Ottoman Turks.

Embracing his newfound Albanian identity with vigor, DioGuardi was responsible for the first congressional hearing on the situation in Kosovo (or Kosova, as the region is known in Albanian and as DioGuardi always refers to it).

After losing his congressional seat in 1988 to Nita Lowey, DioGuardi founded the Albanian American Civic League, the only registered grassroots lobby representing the 700,000 strong Albanian American community. And in 1990, he visited Kosovo and Albania with Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the only Holocaust survivor in Congress. When the two met with then-Albanian President Ramiz Alia, the Albanian leader handed Lantos a thick file from the nation’s archives with evidence—since authenticated by Yad Vashem—that hundreds of Albanian families rescued Jews during the 18 months in 1943-44 that the Nazis occupied Albania.

Lantos and two Jewish congressmen from New York, Jerrold Nadler and former Rep. Ben Gilman, were instrumental in getting the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to add Albania added to its section listing the “Righteous Among the Nations.” Lantos has consistently been a strong advocate of the rights of the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo, repeatedly expressing support for full Kosovo independence from Serbia in years since that province was placed under United Nations control in 1999.

While the United Nations originally promised to decide Kosovo’s final status by the end of 2006, that decision has now been delayed until after Serbia holds its elections on Jan. 21, and it is not clear when the issue might be resolved after that. While the U.S. has expressed rhetorical support for independence for Kosovo, the European Union has been more tepid and conditional in its support, whereas Russia, a traditional ally of Serbia, has threatened to veto a Security Council resolution backing Kosovo independence.

DioGuardi’s wife and fellow advocate on behalf of Kosovo, Shirley Cloyes-DioGuardi, believes that European ambivalence and Russian opposition to Kosovo independence have caused the Bush administration to search for an accommodation. That, she worries, might put Kosovo independence on hold, or give it a form that will be “more than autonomy and less than independence.” In such a case, “Kosovo would not have a Foreign Ministry or an army, and an EU-led ‘International Civilian Office’ would control much of its political life.”

Longtime Jewish supporters of Kosovo independence remain on board but are less avid in pushing for a rapid consummation of the process than are the DioGuardis.

Bob King, a spokesman for Lantos, who next month is to become chairman of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, told The Jewish Week, “Congressman Lantos is convinced that independence for Kosovo, something he has been advocating for years, will become a fact after the Serbian elections…and has been pressing the Bush Administration to move more decisively on the issue.”

Still, King predicted, “Independence will not come precipitously,” since work still needs to be done to convince the Serbian minority in Kosovo their rights will be protected.

King’s point was seconded by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, and another longtime supporter of the rights of Kosovar Albanians, who remarked, “Kosovo independence is a foregone conclusion, but a lot still has to be done to implement confidence building measures for the Serb minority.”

For his part, DioGuardi believes that a decision by the international community to delay granting genuine independence for Kosovo “will destabilize a country where there is 70 percent unemployment for people under 30.”

He said that while Kosovars, like other Albanians a predominantly Muslim people, have spurned the blandishments of Islamic fundamentalism so far, that might possibly change if they come to feel abandoned by the West or if the Serbs elect ultra-nationalist parties dedicated to renewing the violence in Kosovo.

According to DioGuardi, “We need the support of the Jewish community again because the Kosovars are still in peril. We hope American Jews remember the heroic actions of the Albanian people on behalf of Jews during the Holocaust, and stand with us today in support of independence for Kosova.”

Albania was the only nation in Europe that refused to turn over even one Jew to the Nazis during World War II, saving about 2,000 during the German occupation of that Balkan country.

Correct me if I'm wrong but Albania was never even occupied by the Germans. The Italians controlled Albania, and they didn't search for Jews with quite the same vigor as Germans did, so no wonder Jews in Albania had a high survival rate.

"DioGuardi, ...learned ...that his father, who emigrated to the U.S. from a village in southern Italy, was not really of Italian ancestry, but was actually descended from Albanian Christians who moved to Italy in the 15th century to escape a takeover of that country by the Ottoman Turks.

DioGuardi(fakename) backs the KLA islamic terrorists, taking over Kosovo, just as the Ottoman turks/islamic terrorist attempted to take over Kosovo in the 15th Century.

Makes me glad he's not in congress any longer.

3
posted on 12/29/2006 3:06:46 PM PST
by gitmogrunt
(Conservative and Republican are not synonymous.)

I hope that someone who is Jewish will respond accordingly to this blatant act of The Holocaust revisionism in seemingly Jewish newspaper. Being silent about vile Holocaust revisionist act is becoming part of it.

The facts:

1. Kosovo and Albania are different territories. What happened to Jews in Albania during WWII is not relevant to what happened to Jews in Kosovo. During WWII, Kosovo Albanians provided one Waffen SS division to Hilter (1st Albanian Waffen SS Division Skanderbeg) and prosecuted Kosovo Jews. Saying that Kosovo Albaninans have protected Jews in their midst is a vicious Nazi revisionist lie. The only reason why Jews in Albania were not rounded up is the hasty withdrawal of the Nazi troops from Albania at the end of the war.

See Raul Hilbergs seminal Holocaust book, The Destruction of the European Jews, where it is documented that Albanians played a key and fundamental role in The Holocaust.

2. The fact that some liberal Jews in their support to BJ Clinton resorted even to slick Holocaust denial schemes should not be taken lightly. It is good opportunity to address this. The fact that Kosovo is JUDENREIN today owing to the very same Islamic terrorists liberal Jews supported is the most telling.

>>>>>>>According to DioGuardi, We need the support of the Jewish community again because the Kosovars are still in peril. We hope American Jews remember the heroic actions of the Albanian people on behalf of Jews during the Holocaust, and stand with us today in support of independence for Kosova.<<<<<<<<<

Dioguardi's revisionist lie is no different than saying "We need the support of the Jewish community again because the Palestinians are still in peril. We hope American Jews remember the heroic actions of the Palestinian people on behalf of Jews during the Holocaust, and stand with us today in support of independence for Palestine."

The Albanian role in The Holocaust is undeniable fact and that makes Dioguardi Holocaust diminisher.

The fact that this holocaust diminisher is Republican makes this even worse.

........said Joseph DioGuardi, a onetime Republican congressman from Westchester County who has become a passionate advocate for the rights of Kosovo Albanians since leaving Congress in 1990.

This POS is a paid lobbyist for Albanian Muzzies! In Washington DC nobody rides for free!!Seems to me, if your family has lived in southern italy for the last 500 years, you're not really "albanian" any more..

You're Italian..

With lots of intermarriage with Italians

If DioGuardi is too stupid to figure that out, I too, am glad he's not in congress any longer...

How right you are. This guy is a salesman and a good salesman will tell a great story about his products and himself. |And this guy sells Muslim irredentism

Even including the depredations of the Skanderbeg in Kosovo and the fate of the Jewish community there, Albania remained the only country in occupied Europe to see an increase in its Jewish population.

For all the work the Serbs have put in attempting to equate themselves with the Jews recently, their actions in Bosnia, and subsequent inability to repudiate the action of their kin there, have put too high of a hurdle in the way of that scheme ever bearing any worthwhile fruit.

Time change and you are just a dumb tool of Islamic expansionism. How many mosques have adopted you? As far as Jews go, Jihad is their enemy no matter whether it's Jihad in Gaza, Kosovo, France or India.

JIHAD NEWS IN THAILAND: The real perps were, believe it or not, Islamic jihadists, although the Bangkok Post doesn't deem that fact worthy of notice. "Insurgents kill, burn Buddhist teachers," from the Bangkok Post, with thanks to LS:

Southern violence continues, as two teachers were gunned down by insurgents in Yala while a village defense guard was killed in Narathiwat. Extremists shot two male teachers in Muang district Friday morning as they were travelling to their school to teach. After shooting the two men, the insurgents dragged their bodies out of the pick-up and set them on fire. As the last act before fleeing, they set fire to the vehicle. http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/014607.php#comments

I'm getting there also, I will admit that it can become frustrating, but this is the purpose and objective.....the best defense is an overwhelming offense......:)) and some good old rock and roll, for others, an open can of "Whoop a$$"....lolol....

21
posted on 12/30/2006 3:01:48 AM PST
by tgambill
(I would like to comment.....)

As to the Serbs being the nearest thing to decent, rational people in the Balkans, that may have held true under Tito, but under Milosevic they turned into either bystanders or active participants in the biggest bloodletting in European history since the 1940's, and are now engaged in the biggest mass denial since Germans decided that none of them were ever members of the Nazi Party - it's strange how the Serbs, victimized as they were during the 1940's, chose to emulate their antagonists from that era, complete with sonderkommando and concentration camps, albeit on a necessarily smaller scale.

Can you tell me where the gas chambers and crematoriums are located in Bosnia?

There weren't any.

The point remains, however, that the Bosnian Serbs set up a system of concentration camps in Bosnia, and that further, said concentration camps were expressly for the purpose of creating a Serbian monoethnic state it Bosnia, that conditions in said concentration camps were inhuman, and any attempts to deny their existence or the execrable conditions prevalent in said camps merely bring discredit upon the parties attempting such idiocy.

I leave you with part of the statement given by Biljana Plavsic, which goes a long way towards explaining the continuing nonsense of Serbian denial over what they wrought in their various wars under Milosevic:

I have now had time to examine these charges and, together with my lawyers, conduct our own investigation and evaluation. I have now come to the belief and accept the fact that many thousands of innocent people were the victims of an organised, systematic effort to remove Muslims and Croats from the territory claimed by Serbs. At the time, I easily convinced myself that this was a matter of survival and self-defence. In fact, it was more. Our leadership, of which I was a necessary part, led an effort which victimised countless innocent people. Explanations of self-defence and survival offer no justification. By the end, it was said, even among our own people, that in this war we had lost our nobility of character. The obvious questions become, if this truth is now self-evident, why did I not see it earlier? And how could our leaders and those who followed have committed such acts? The answer to both questions is, I believe, fear, a blinding fear that led to an obsession, especially for those of us for whom the Second World War was a living memory, that Serbs would never again allow themselves to become victims. In this, we in the leadership violated the most basic duty of every human being, the duty to restrain oneself and to respect the human dignity of others. We were committed to do whatever was necessary to prevail. Although I was repeatedly informed of allegations of cruel and inhuman conduct against non-Serbs, I refused to accept them or even to investigate. In fact, I immersed myself in addressing the suffering of the war's innocent Serb victims. This daily work confirmed in my mind that we were in a struggle for our very survival and that in this struggle, the international community was our enemy, and so I simply denied these charges, making no effort to investigate. I remained secure in my belief that Serbs were not capable of such acts. In this obsession of ours to never again become victims, we had allowed ourselves to become victimisers.

Kosovo Albanians are the scum of the earth. Kosovars dominate the heroin and child-sex trafficking rings in Europe. Moreoever Albanians served in Hilter's Muslim SS units, and murdered two groups of people: Jews and Serbians. Any Jew who would lift a finger to help a single Albanian should have it chopped off.

Albaian Kosovars are verminous pigs. They should be driven from Kosovo, not supported by anyone. They were murderous Nazis criminals during WWII...our enemies. Today they are the enemies of all Europe.

On right, Kosovar Albanian Muslim Nazir Hodic, a member of the Nazi SS Division Handzar in Bosnia. On left is Rudi Sommemer, the commander of the Nazi SS Albanian Battalion, 6/28 in Handzar. Hodic is shown wearing the Albanian skull cap issued by the SS with a Nazi swastika on his collar. Far right: Fez worn by Kosovar Albanian Nazi SS troops.

He said that while Kosovars, like other Albanians a predominantly Muslim people, have spurned the blandishments of Islamic fundamentalism so far, that might possibly change if they come to feel abandoned by the West or if the Serbs elect ultra-nationalist parties dedicated to renewing the violence in Kosovo.

So now a veiled threat from this prick DioGuardi. What a bunch of bullshit. Here is the symbol the Albanian Kosovars took for themselves during WWII...

A scimitar, prepared to behead...look familiar given today's terrorists? Muslim Kosovars and Nazism---perfect together. Any Jew who supports them is a traitor and an idiot. Tell DioGuardi to go to hell.

"The human suffering during the course of the war (in Bosnia) and the atrocities committed were terrible; yet this real suffering was exploited and manipulated for political ends to demonize the Serbian community. Successful attempts were made by Izetbegovic's regime - which employed a US-based PR firm - to give the impression that atrocities were conducted only by the Serbs, whereas all sides were responsible. The scale of atrocities was also massively inflated for political effect during the course of the war. While estmates as high as 200,000 to 300,000 by Izetbegovic's government, most informed estimates now suggest an upper limit of 35,000. Izetbegovic government also suggested that up to 30,000 women had been raped, which rightly caused intense international outcry and condemnation. The Serbs were accused of being primarily responsible for these appalling crimes and of having a systematic policy of mass rape, organizing 'rape camps' for that purpose. Evidence does not seem to bear this out, however. A UN report concluded that a total of approximately 2,400 rapes had taken place, committed by all sides in the conflict."

By: Kate Hudson, Principal Lecturer in Russian and Eastern European Politics at South Bank University.

the shiftars of Albania or the shiftars of Kosovo? How conveniently they fail to mention the distinction of the two during ww2...how shameful...blatabt liars. The shiftars of kosovo cleansed the Jews of Kosovo twice...to Bergen Belsen during ww2 and to Belgrade and points beyond in the 90's.

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